A 5.9 earthquake struck between Mineral and Louisa, Virginia — 90 miles from Washington, DC — at 1:51pmET, but was felt up and down the east coast.

Much of the cable news coverage which had been focused on Libya, switched immediately to the earthquake. Our building is being evacuated … again (we’re on the 4th floor of a high rise in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan).

Back soon. 2:19pm

2:38pm And… we’re back.

2:20pmET: Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, who was anchoring her DC show when the quake struck: “This is a three-story building and our studio is on the third floor. Everybody came down very calmly down the steps, but clearly knocked off of the air from the rumbling sense first described by my colleagues, Pete Williams, and others. And you know the glass and metal desk in the studio, that desktop started to go up and down and seemed as though everything was moving a couple of inches up and down and the papers going every which way, and clearly, it took a while to register.”

2:26pm: Bret Baier outside the Fox News DC bureau on Capitol Hill: “We felt it for 25-30 seconds. The floor shaking beneath us. And then everyone — the alarm went off and everyone went down the stairs. There are hundreds of people out on the streets in D.C outside the Capitol, outside all of the buildings. All these folks waiting to see what they can do as far as getting back in. We have just been told by the building management that we can go in right now and get our things and then 30 minutes from now they are going to shut down this building for right now.”

2:17pm: Wolf Blitzer on CNN: “We felt it here. We’re up on Capitol Hill in our building at CNN in Washington, DC. I was on the eighth floor and all of a sudden it just started slowly, you felt the ground floor moving a little bit. The desks started to shake a little bit. But then you could really feel the pounding and there was a real jolt and I’m guessing it lasted for 20 or 30 seconds.”

2:02pm: CNN’s Barbara Starr at the Pentagon: “Just a few moments ago as the building began

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The network news Pentagon correspondents have just been briefed on the massive intelligence trove taken during the raid on Osama Bin Laden‘s compound last Sunday. MSNBC immediately aired the videos of a beard-dyed Bin Laden as NBC’s Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski was making his way to his camera position. Miklaszewski and MSNBC anchor Alex Witt discussed the videos as they played. At one point, a video shows Bin Laden watching TV (above). Miklaszewski describes Bin Laden with the remote control, “working it like most American men watching sports on the weekend…as he’s flipping channels to find reports about himself.”

Around 1:05pmET, after MSNBC had aired most of the five as-yet unreleased Bin Laden videos at least once, CNN began playing the videos. Fox News chose not to take the videos directly to air, instead broadcasting still images from the video showing the black-bearded Bin Laden.

CNN’s Barbara Starr had an interesting behind the scenes observation, telling anchor Fredicka Whitfield, “You had perhaps 50 reporters here in the Pentagon for a background briefing from a senior intelligence official, we were not allowed to record it, we could take no pictures, we can broadcast nothing from this briefing in terms of what was said, but the Obama administration had an official in the room taking pictures of us.”

Jennifer Griffin on Fox News characterized the intelligence take as “the mother-load” describing Bin Laden in one video looking “like an old man on the floor just watching Al Jazeera.”

Fox News anchor Jamie Colby explained FNC’s policy: “We are only showing you these stills, and not the video. It is our position that we will not ever air video that would serve as propaganda.”

CBS News produced a special report around 12:58pmET with Anthony Mason anchoring in New York and Bob Orr at the Pentagon. ABC News produced a special report around 1:08pmET anchored by David Muir and Martha Raddatz at the Pentagon. Both CBS and ABC aired the videos, none of which had audio.

> More: The DOD video release is changing up cable news afternoon programming. Fox News’ “America’s News HQ” will air until 3pmET; “Journal Editorial Report” and “FOX News Watch” will air at 3 and 3:30pmET, preempting a John Stossel special. MSNBC went live until 2pmET while CNN/U.S. and CNNI have been simulcasting for much of the afternoon.

The end of the Brenda Starr comic strip may mean a little less confusion in Barbara Starr‘s inbox.

It was announced yesterday that after 70 years, the current writer and illustrator of Brenda Starr would be inking their final strip. Brenda Starr, a reporter-turned-editor known for her globetrotting adventures and steamy romances, will be reporting her last on January 2.

It’s all bittersweet for CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

“As a little girl in my big eyeglasses and saddle shoes I remember every morning before school reading about Brenda’s latest adventures and thinking how wonderful she was,” Starr tells TVNewser.

But over the years, as Barbara Starr became a well-known reporter in her own right, viewers began confusing her with the other “Starr” reporter.

“I have over the years gotten mail and messages addressed to ‘Brenda Starr’ and been called Brenda quite often because people had ‘Brenda’ on their minds when they heard my name.”

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FishbowlDC caught up with CNN pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr to discuss her upcoming series, “The Journey Home,” airing on “The Situation Room” this week. Starr was granted access to a military aircraft that transports recently wounded soldiers from Afghanistan. She says, “What [my producer] and I want is for viewers to know the heart we put into telling these stories, but we want them to also see the remarkable heart of young troops who serve the country and the medical teams that stay up for days on end taking care of them.” Read the Q&A here.